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Be an Advocate!
Computers and Your Safety in the HospitalNew technology makes a hospital stay safer than ever. The patient's wristband is scanned to confirm the medication.
Paperless prescriptions. Bar-coded medicine. Patients monitored miles away. Sound futuristic? It’s not. These are all ways computers are transforming today’s hospital—and that’s good news for patients, says Donald Levick, M.D., a pediatrician and physician liaison for information services at Lehigh Valley Hospital and Health Network. “Hospitals across the country have identified areas where patient safety should be improved,” he says, “and technology is helping eliminate the potential for error.” Lehigh Valley Hospital is in the forefront of this movement. Here are three examples: Ordering by computerAt Lehigh Valley Hospital and a growing number of others, doctors order prescriptions and diagnostic tests by entering information directly into a computer near the bedside. That order, including details on why it’s needed and how it should be administered, is then transmitted directly to the hospital pharmacy or to diagnostic testing.“This system eliminates the possibility that poor handwriting could lead to a medication mistake,” Levick says. “And nurses and pharmacists have the information at their fingertips. That means the patient gets his medications and tests faster, and the nurse can answer his questions more accurately.” Bar-coded drugsEntering orders in a computer is just the first step in administering medicine more safely, says registered pharmacist Robert Begliomini. He is director of pharmacy at Lehigh Valley Hospital, where medications are being packaged in individual wrappers with bar codes for identification.“We load them into our robot that fills more than 6,000 doses a day,” Begliomini says. “When the medication arrives at its destination, nurses scan the bar code into a computer that displays the patient’s records. Then they scan the code on the patient’s wristband. Bar-coding has been outstanding in catching potential mistakes.” Currently, only a handful of drug manufacturers and hospitals have a bar-coding system, Begliomini says, but it should become more common after the government approves a standardized system. Monitoring from a distanceComputer technology also is helping Lehigh Valley Hospital monitor patients at different locations. Already, maternal fetal medicine specialists monitor high-risk mothers-to-be via “telemedicine.” In the coming year, the hospital will be able to connect critical care patients with “tele-intensivists,” critical care specialists who monitor the patient through a camera, microphone and computer in the patient’s room.This technology tracks everything from breathing and heart rate to laboratory results. The tele-intensivists will collaborate with doctors and nurses in Lehigh Valley Hospital’s multiple critical care units, providing round-the-clock intensive care. “Tele-intensivists won’t replace doctors and nurses at the bedside,” Levick says. “They will offer another level of monitoring that can detect critical changes sooner—and possibly, save lives.”
Want to Know More? For a copy of Lehigh Valley Hospital and Health Network’s award-winning video on patient safety or the Report to the Community 2003,
call 610-402-CARE. This page last updated 2/12/08 04:08 PM
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